26 July Best fishing in Utah not necessarily on private land by George McQuiston General Information 0 0 Comment 2002 July 24th, arguably one of Utah’s most popular Holiday’s .The mountains are generally filled this time of year with people enjoying the wonders of nature in their own backyards. Utah is home to hundreds of thousands of public land acres available to anyone who resides in the U.S. regardless whether permanent resident or simply visiting from somewhere not America. These lands are the peoples to enjoy and recreate on. The very intriguing part of our journey this day into Brown Duck Basin, again possibly one of the High Uinta’s most popular destination spots, is the complete absence of anyone in the basin, no fisherman, no campers, no hikers, no serenity seekers:) NO ONE! (Well ok except for the people we were going to pick up who also said they hadn’t seen anyone else in a week) So the thought occurs to me: Self, where are all those so called “anglers” that opposed house bill 141, protecting landowner rights that passed the legislature this year, who argued that “the best fishing” was only on private land? Where are the “fishing guides” that felt the need to “steal” access from private ranch owners to be able to offer their clients such “good fishing” away from crowds? Don’t get me wrong, private land offers great fishing and crowd less opportunities, but where we outfit in 2 states there is literally hundreds of miles of fishable rivers and at least 200 stocked fishable lakes. With a little effort one can find a “private” spot, on public ground, that might make a person think that the day and that water was made just for him…a true gift from God! I guess the key word above is effort. It does take some effort to reach these backcountry spots. You can’t just drive up the highway, pull over and cast. It does require strapping on some hiking boots or saddling up ol’ Dobbin and actually leaving the pavement behind to reach some of these spots. To me a true labor of love. So my hopes in writing this short story is not to berate or belittle anyone (I do however believe unequivocally in protecting private property rights) it is simply to encourage you to go down in the basement and dust off that old back pack, get some new laces for your hiking boots, find that old hardened cheese floating bait or your box of fly’s and spinners and head to the high country. There are enough environuts out there that would lock us out of this great big wonderful playground we call the High Uinta’s, that we need to enjoy it while you are still young enough to hike or ride into the backcountry. Happy fishing! Island Lake July 24th…Not a sole in site! Miles of public river fishing…again void of people! General Information Share Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.